A recent investigation done by a travel agency in India, revealed that locals preferred shorter trips to longer vacations. This is a growing sentiment across the world as similar investigations have been conducted in both Germany and across the entire continent of Europe with similar results. A few years back, NBC conducted a relevant investigation with experts in the field, and it concluded that shorter vacations were better for the mental health of Americans. Mental health, however, is not one of the main reasons why people are preferring shorter trips.
One of the main reasons people are going on shorter trips is the lack of vacation days. Folks who work at a regular 9 to 5 in an office setting are simply not able to leave their post for a month to backpack across Europe. This may be something, however, that people who work remotely would be able to do. Even those people, though, have to contend with the challenges of working from abroad. Many of these remote workers are not going to other places on “vacation.” They are leaving their homes and working from elsewhere. Since they do have to log in and put in the work, it’s not feasible for them to take a long trip to do the “Camino de Santiago” trail, for example. Along the way, there are plenty of locations where Wi-Fi isn’t great. Working as you walk can be a challenge. The same thing goes for destinations like the popular Machu Picchu.
Workers who are in a hybrid setting will also gravitate more toward shorter trips for obvious reasons. If they are called back into the office at some point, it’s going to be easier to get there from a city that’s relatively close by than it would be to catch a flight from halfway across the world.
Another thing that the investigation in India pointed out is that locals had a lot of great destinations close by. In that case, they talked about Singapore and different Middle Eastern countries as “short-haul” flights gaining popularity. To be clear, the India-Singapore route is one that you cover in about six hours. That’s about the same flight time as an LA to NYC flight. In the local market, you could still justify that 6-hour flight for something like a 4-day trip in some cases, particularly if you take a red-eye flight. In the US, you also have all of the Mexican beaches that you can get to within a similar time frame. Plus, any road trips that cover the same hours, even if the distance isn’t as great.
People across the world are choosing shorter trips due to the lack of free time. Also, the convenience of these shorter travel times makes it easier to justify a trip. In many parts of the world, it’s also true that folks feel like they have decent travel options nearby. It’s just easier, for example, to pack your things up and head to Cabo for the weekend. You won’t have to plan things out as much as you would if you were going to Paris per se.
